BONDTRAKR

Inspiration

The inspiration for BONDTRAKR came from the frustration of managing traditional U.S. Savings Bonds. Most people have these sitting in a drawer or a safe, but the official TreasuryDirect website is outdated and difficult to navigate as it doesn't allow you to make a portfolio with both paper and electronic savings bonds. I wanted to create a modern, secure tool that helps people treat their "dusty" paper bonds as a live part of their financial portfolio. This has been a real pain point that my father has raised for many years and now I want to fix that.

What it does

BONDTRAKR is a full-stack portfolio manager for Series I and EE savings bonds.

Real-time Valuation: By hooking into the official U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data API, the app calculates the exact current cash value of a bond based on its issue date and series.

Portfolio Syncing: Users can create an account via Google OAuth to securely save and track their entire bond collection in one place.

Smart Profit Tracking: It distinguishes between "Paper" and "Electronic" formats to accurately calculate profit margins, especially for Series EE bonds.

Market Analysis Tool: Helps users understand market context, comparing their bond rates against current inflation and yield curves.

How I built it

Frontend: Built with a clean, responsive HTML/CSS/JS interface featuring a custom dark/light modes.

Backend & Database: I used Firebase (Firestore) for a real time secure database and Firebase Authentication for secure user logins through their google accounts.

Data Integration: I utilized the U.S. Treasury’s Fiscal Data API to fetch monthly redemption values.

Visuals: Chart.js was implemented to provide a visual breakdown of asset allocation between Series I and EE bonds.

Challenges I ran into

The biggest challenge was to design a tool that works with all the specifications and unique calculation methods that the Treasury uses for the different categories of savings bonds.

Accomplishments that I am proud of

I am proud of the portoflio feature, the quality of the interface, UI, and using the database effectively for both login and storage.

What I learned

I learned a great deal about the complexities of government financial instruments, specifically the 3-month interest penalty rule for bonds held under five years and the "doubling" guarantee for Series EE bonds. On the technical side, I gained experience in handling asynchronous API calls and managing a secure database like Firestore.

What's next for BONDTRAKR

I want to turn this into a app and publish it on the app/play store.

Built With

• css
• database
• gemini
• html
• javascript